back. and fuller than ever

Folks i've missed you.
6 glorious months staying with friends, cooking on fires and a campstove that had a tendency to burst into flames. I missed baking.

Here's Rocky the crocodile oven mit with the first of two pies i've made in recent sydney visits. I'm hoping to get some kinda reputation in sin city. I made the pecan pie in december using stephanie the pie queen's recipe. It was some excellent pie, squooshy and caramellish with a bit more body than most because of the eggs i think. It should come with a warning though - this pie is almost all sugar products. We had to lie down afterwards but hey, there are worse things than a post-pie nap.

The best bit is that i'm getting over my fear of pastry. I used the pie crust recipe that stephanie has for her apple pie and well, it just worked. No fussin. It made two crusts so of course i had to come back to sydney to use the one i stashed in the lander st freezer. Last night i used it up with a cherry pie to celebrate all the plump and tasty cherries around. Couldn't find a recipe i loved so i made one up. It was delicious and lemony though i didn't calculate how many cherries i'd need very well. So it was more of a cherry tart - not quite deep enough to qualify as pie. Maybe tarts are more classy anyway?

Well, i'm out of training with this blog business but i'll be back soon with the successful chrismukkah recipes. 'til then, if you want to give it a go:

(She's My) Cherry Pie
1 pie crust
1 egg yolk
100 g ground almonds
lots of fresh cherries - maybe a kilo?
zest of one lemon
white sugar

Roll out and blind bake your pie crust for about 15 minutes at 190C. Then brush it with egg yolk and bake it until golden. This will seal it so it doesn't go soggy. Meanwhile pit the cherries, getting red juice sprayed over everything. Stick them in a pot with the lemon juice and a half handful of sugar. Cook them just til they collapse a bit. When the pie crust is done cover it with the almond meal. Add the cherries, but maybe not all the juice from the pot. Top with cute designs made in leftover pastry and bake at 180 for about 40 - 50 minutes. Let it sit a moment and then devour with thick cream or icecream. If you're lucky like us friends will drop by to help with the devouring.